Thursday, January 10, 2013

Morning time is Mama Time in my kitchen. I love to savor a cup of coffee amidst the quiet and solitude of a house full of sleepers. The chocolate is not all for me, it's on its way to our boy's expedition group along with some healthier foods that are in the works in my new, well you'll see, my new food preparation device that I'll try to photograph for you. It's something I have considered for a long time.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

I was the kind of night bird who'd stay up late, devouring novels, writing, drawing and painting, working on collage and other creative projects in my solitude, happy as can be, occasionally going out to hear bands of friends, everyone was in a band back then it seemed, or to dinner or a movie.

Then I became a mother. And it all changed. It was during my pregnancy that the night bird flew away. I'd fall asleep after dinner on the sofa, wishing for cake and unable to make it through an episode of The Simpsons. (This was a long time ago, in 1994 to be precise.) Melrose Place followed Beverly Hills 90210 in those days.

With motherhood came a new appreciation for the morning. Mornings became my time, my moments of solitude. My babies slept well. They must have had some keen survival instinct in knowing that I was not happy when woken from my sleep. I somehow managed to nurse in the night without ever coming to a full state of awakening. You know that feeling?

My children have grown and still sleep well through the night. They are sometimes reluctant to go to bed and will sleep into the morning when there is no need to rise.

I never returned to the life of the nightbird. I am ready for bed shortly after nightfall and prefer a good book to a movie. I continue to savor the solitude of my mornings. This morning's splendor was too glorious not to share with you. When I looked out the window the sky to the south and easy was painted with these vibrant colors. I made no adjustments to the camera or photo, this is just how they came out.

Monday, January 7, 2013

One simple way to help make the week flow with ease is the meal plan. The meal plan makes it easy to shop, plan and prepare meals. It also makes a great fall back during busy and stressful times.

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After a full holiday season of stepping out of our rhythm pretty regularly, a meal plan helps bring form to our days and weeks. If you'd like some help to get your rhythm back on track, join my program Celebrate the Rhythm of Life in February with the focus topic on Rhythm. You'll get help identifying and establishing the rhythm that is best for your family and receive a month of enthusiastic support.

Here's the description from last year's Rhythm Session that got great reviews and brought many members back for more. Included in the Program are Packets of support material, videos, articles and a discussion group as well as consultation with yours truly.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Many moons ago, when I was a child, the week between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day was a stepping out of time: we visited family, had friends and family over to visit, played with cousins, sang Christmas songs and ate plenty of good food. We feasted and were festive. We made snowmen and went ice skating and toboganning. The routine of school and work stopped, and the focus was one of pulling in, of connection and companionship and community with family and friends. It was a time out of time, with a stillness to the air, and to the year, a threshold perhaps.

Now that I am the parent, I make sure that life continues to slow down here, even though the world remains busy outside our doors. We don't have so many aunts and uncles and cousins to visit as I did, as they are fewer in number and more spread out than we were. The buzz of the world does not seem so far away as it did when I was young, or perhaps it was not so loud. To hold that stillness is a challenge.

As I am in my own bubble of the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Holy Nights, I've been thinking about Epiphany and my relationship to this feast, the Feast of Epiphany, the awakening of the wise men from the east, awakening of the self, of consciousness.

Epiphany is said to have its origins in the Saturnalia of Rome. In the Church it is a liturgical season from Epiphany to Candlemas, a day also known as Brigid's Day, and for some associated with the churching of women.

For me, Christmas is a season that begins just after Thanksgiving with the first week of Advent and continues until Candelmas, or Brigid's Day. Over the years we have taken up activities that have become tradition, along with many of the traditions I grew up with.

It has not always been this way. As a child I read Marx and Engels' History of the Family and then rebelled against everything, church, tradition, rules. I was not an easy teenager, ahem - sorry mom and dad. As I grow older, I have such compassion for my mom and dad and what they put up with and I now find meaning in the traditions of my own childhood, not as habit or sentimentality but as something that makes meaning for me.

I now celebrate because I want to, it is important for me. I bring them to my children to take part in or not. I wonder if it is in the letting go of them, as I did when I was younger and rebellious, then the contemplation of them, and finally a conscious and hopefully living relationship to them and then inviting them as something meaningful that makes for transformation and a free relationship to celebration? Do you find that happens with you?

We are midway through the twelve days and holy nights of Christmas, the Child of Light and Love or the Sun of Light has triumphed over the darkness of the year and the three kings are following the star as we are moving towards Epiphany, the Festival of the Three Kings; the figures in our house move along with time. The mood of Epiphany carries us to Candelmas. Rudolf Steiner spoke of the mood of Christmas in The Christmas Festival in the Changing Course of Time here in case you are interested.

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Striving to embrace the sacred in the everyday and protect the wonder of childhood with slow and simple living. I provide support for parents, teachers and child caregivers with workshops, book groups and consultations as well as my blog + program: Celebrate the Rhythm of Life Living Curriculum that includes a Monthly Guide + eCourse each month as well as plenty of enthusiastic daily, weekly and seasonal support for celebrating the rhythm of life! I'm editor over at the Wonder of Childhood online magazine. On sabbatical from tending The Children's Garden, a nursery program for young children and their families. I am a Simplicity Parenting Coach. I offer consultation for Waldorf homeschooling and parenting issues. I've served on the Board of Directors of LifeWays North America as well as WECAN's Birth to Three Task Force. I work out of anthroposophy. Some of the hats worn in this life include: Mom, Midwife, Childbirth Educator, Homemaker, Homeschooler, Parent Child Group Leader, Kindergarten Teacher, Nursery Caregiver.

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